NFL Scouting Combine

Unlike Steve Almond and Mark Edmundson, the authors of two terrific new books on football, I did not grow up with a father who loved the sport. My father thinks football is commercialized barbarism — 22 oversized idiots plowing into one another, following a byzantine set of rules no one truly understands. For me, football is a beloved fall ritual. It's a season of Homeric contests playing out on my television screen. As the titles of their books suggest, Almond and Edmundson come down on similarly opposed ends of the football debate. Almond's book, "Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto," is an extended essay on why his football fandom has evolved...

Related "NFL Scouting Combine" Articles

Standing on the Lucas Oil Stadium field in February in Indianapolis watching safeties go through NFL combine drills, Anthony Harris started to mentally compare himself to the NFL draft hopefuls who were posting times, reps and distances.
Since he was...

WILLIAMSBURG — Tre McBride has never lacked confidence, but the past several months have been something of a validation tour for the William and Mary wide receiver and NFL prospect.
Weeks at a performance training academy in the Florida Panhandle....

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Maybe Virginia still earns a second consecutive ACC regular-season title and No. 1 NCAA seed. Perhaps the Cavaliers repeat as conference tournament champions and are hailed as the primary obstacle to what many believe is Kentucky's...

PRO HOCKEY:Nick Cousins scored 2:32 into overtime Friday night to give the Lehigh Valley Phantoms a 3-2 AHL win at Scope Arena in the first of a two-game series against the Norfolk Admirals.
The Admirals have lost four games in a row — all by one goal...

Josh Sweat's days as a man of mystery on area high school football fields didn't last long. He was destined to be noticed.
Sweat opened last season on ESPNU in Oscar Smith High's 42-2 win against Lake Taylor as an imposing unknown towering on the edge of...

After watching a dozen quarterbacks get selected ahead of him Saturday, Phoebus High graduate Tajh Boyd was about ready to throw in the towel on his NFL draft chances by late afternoon.
Sitting in his car with his seat back and a hat pulled low over...

When James Gayle was told NFL teams would want to know everything about him before the draft, he never figured masonry skills would become a topic of conversation.
After going through the extensive and sometimes mind-blowing pre-draft interview process...

YORK — Lorenzo Taliaferro admits that six years ago, he just didn't get it. "It" was the connection between athletics and academics.
So, while he had to learn the hard way, he learned. Academically ineligible to play for Bruton High his...

Colby Goodwyn's dream is the same as elite level NFL prospects. His path is longer, more varied and less glamorous.
The former Old Dominion and Phoebus High standout works out daily. He has participated in mini-combines and played in an under-the-radar...

After his sophomore year at Virginia Tech, James Gayle started seeing players he'd either competed with or against in college participate in the NFL scouting combine. He couldn't wait to get to the combine to see how his skills compared.
No more...

Oday Aboushi will be following in the footsteps of another former Virginia offensive tackle, while former Virginia Tech wide receiver Corey Fuller and offensive tackle Vinston Painter are about to get National Football League opportunities that might've...

Vinston Painter hopes NFL teams share his father's opinion when it comes to Painter's possible longevity in a football uniform.
After starting just one season at right tackle for Virginia Tech, Painter believes he has more football left in his chiseled...

Defensive back B.W. Webb of William and Mary, a former Warwick High star, turned heads at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
Webb posted a vertical jump of 40 1/2 inches, a broad jump of 132 inches and fast shuttle times for 20 yards (3.84...

NASCAR's heroes typically have been white males: Richard Petty was the inspiration for much of the previous generation and the late Dale Earnhardt is for many of today's stars.There's plenty of admiration in the sport for Wendell Scott, the...

David Wilson already has mentally prepared himself for the emotional roller coaster that may await him this week in the NFL draft.
Though he ran for a Virginia Tech single-season record 1,709 yards last season, posted 40-yard dash times of 4.49 seconds...

No bling, entourage or oversized bachelor crib. No arrogance, ego or sense of entitlement.OK, so Tyrod Taylor bought a new car. A BMW 750 at that.Otherwise, he appears the same grounded and humble young man who quarterbacked Hampton High School and...